Making Sense of Organisations Organisational Politics, Power and Strategic Change

An Historical Perspective of Power and Politics Maciavelli (early 1500s) “The Prince”: The End Justifies the Means The leader can be ruthless if necessary Machiavellian means “characterized by cunning, duplicity, or bad faith” Assume that people are “ungrateful, fickle, and deceitful” The purpose of political leadership is to secure and maintain power A good leader is independent and dominates people

Organisational Politics: What are they? Politics refers to the use of power and authority to influence organizational outcomes: Getting, developing, and using power to reach a desired result Often appears in situations of uncertainty or conflict over choices Often happens outside accepted channels of authority

Organisational Politics: How they work Unofficial, unsanctioned behaviour to reach an intended organisational (strategic) goal Build bases of power Use political behaviour Affect decisions Get scarce resources Earn cooperation of people outside direct authority

Organisational Politics: How they work Ebbs and flows with the dynamics of power Two characteristics: power and influence Directed at reaching organizational goals or individual goals Plays an important role in lateral relationships Rarely have formal authority in such relationships

Sources of Political Behavior Characteristics of political processes Political process Power Influence

Organisational Politics and structure Political behavior and lateral relationships Line-staff Many entry positions Marketing Human resource management Information systems Competition for resources: money, people, equipment, office space Interdependence in work flow; especially in ‘contemporary’ organisations

Organisational Politics and Political Maneuvering Political strategy Plan to reach a goal using specific political tactics Goal: organizational or personal Political tactics Builds power base Uses power

Organisational Politics and Political Maneuvering Political strategy specifies combinations and sequences of political tactics Includes plan for responding to changes in the political context People at all levels can develop and use a political strategy Not written; usually tacit

The Importance of Recognising Organisational Power Power is the capacity to exert ‘pressure’ on others to achieve intended outcomes that one wishes and potentially prevent those one does not Influence; the capacity to affect others. Authority; the capacity to give commands, enforce obedience, take action, or make final decisions.

The Importance of Recognising Organisational Power Three Faces of Power: First Face: Overt Coercion Second Face: Exclusionary Actions – avoid challenges Third Face: Hegemonic control – convince me that what you want is what I want

The Importance of Recognising Organisational Power Opportunity Mobility Perceived political power Dependency Influence Rewards

Power Changing Perspectives on Workers and Organizations A social-psychological view of power; it is not necessarily open coercion, influence, or control Power is the perception of others that the power wielder could exercise coercion, influence, or control if he or she chose to do so How much power you have is based on how much power think you have! Power must be granted

Power and its use in organisations Power is the opposite of dependency and organisations are believed to wish to minimise dependency of workers Use of power increases when structure is decentralized, resources are scarce, there is disagreement on goals, and there is uncertainty about technologies In other words: When resources are limited, goals and processes are unclear, Power Politics are likely to be in existence

Power and Authority Belief that organisational politics is outmoded and unproductive Traditionally executive power is based on the idea of ownership 1990s the idea of ‘Servant Leadership’ and empowerment (TQM etc) based on the desire to get people to take responsibility for improvement through change resulting in, for example, increased customer satisfaction

Power Politics - Positive or Destructive Force? Power politics help organizations to adapt and interact with the environment appropriately: Managers are dependent upon workers Workers have limited time, energy, and talent Power is needed to manage these Some use power for personal and not organizational goals How to handle power: Limit access to decision makers Alter decision criteria to performance Offer financial incentives to discourage political activity

Why has change management in organisations become so important? The quality revolution of the 1980’s (‘customer as king’ argument); QA and TQM, BPR, Lean, Six Sigma The mantra that value-adding is possible if every aspect of the organisation is analysed and improved – but what about the people Belief that perpetual revolution becomes the norm (‘Crazy times, crazy organisations’ Tom Peters) New technology and its impact on every aspect of organisational life and processes Globalization Organisations in built environment were not immune to these influences

Types of change Types of change include alterations to size, structure, culture, leadership, tasks and activities The organisation can be reactive or proactive towards change

The process of change Change is the outcome of the impact of driving forces upon restraining forces Driving forces are often economic in nature Change invokes uncertainty in the existing workforce Managers involved need to communicate strong justification for changes

Greiner’s model of the six phases of change See next slide It may be used to highlight the need: for structural change for development of key skills to manage transfer from one phase to the next

Greiner’s model of the six phases of change